February 19, 2014

Iowa’s Latest $1 Million Powerball Winner Is…

Robert Winburn of Urbandale came to see us yesterday with the winning ticket. Here's how he chooses the Powerball numbers that he plays: Robert said he assigns numbers to the letters in the alphabet and then uses the corresponding numbers in his last name. He says he's been playing that same set of numbers for years now - and most of his numbers hit on Saturday!

Winburn matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball in Saturday's $330.8 million jackpot drawing to win a $1 million prize.

Saturday's winning numbers were: 2-9-14-21-23 and Powerball 3. The Power Play® number was 3. No one matched all six numbers that night, so the big prize has climbed to an estimated $400 million annuity ($227.8 million cash option) for tonight's drawing.

Winburn said he didn't know that he had a $1 million-winning ticket until he scanned it Sunday using a self-checker at an Urbandale grocery store. Then he did a double-check and scanned it a couple more times before he could believe that his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

Winburn bought his lucky ticket at Git-N-Go, 8701 Hickman Road in Urbandale. His ticket was one of nine across the country that each won a $1 million prize in Saturday's Powerball drawing, while a ticket sold in Texas won a $2 million prize because whoever bought it also added the Power Play option to the purchase. The Power Play option multiplies the Match 5 prize from $1 million to $2 million.

Git-N-Go will receive a $1,000 bonus from the lottery for the $1 million-winning ticket being sold at its Urbandale store.

Winburn said he knows exactly what he'll do with his lottery winnings: He plans to buy a newer car, pay bills and invest the rest.

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ABOUT MARY NEUBAUER

As the lottery’s vice president of external relations, I’m a member of the senior management team at the Iowa Lottery, where I’ve worked since 1999. I’ve spent my years at the lottery learning as much as I can about all the ins and outs of the lottery industry. I’ll put that knowledge to work here so I can share the behind-the-scenes details with you!